Forests play a significant role in helping to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. EU forests absorbed 417 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent in 2016, corresponding to around 9% of total GHG emissions (4 441 million tonnes), compared to less than 7% (375 m tonnes) in 1990.

EU

The European Union (EU) had close to 182 million hectares of forests and other wooded land in 2015, corresponding to 43 % of its land area. Wooded land covers a slightly greater proportion of the land than the area used for agriculture (some 41 %).

In seven EU Member States, more than half of the land area was wooded in 2015. Just over three quarters of the land area was wooded in Finland and Sweden, while Slovenia reported 63 %. The remaining four EU Member States, each with shares in the range of 54–56 %, were Estonia, Latvia, Spain and Portugal.

Sweden reported the largest wooded area in 2015 (30.5 million hectares), followed by Spain (27.6 million hectares) and Finland (23.0 million hectares). Of the total area of the EU covered by wooded land in 2015, Sweden and Finland together accounted for 29.4 %.

The source data are here. The statistics on forest cover are taken from a five-yearly survey and the next survey will be in 2020.